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APPEAL 

TO THE 

CHRISTIAN WOMEN OF THE-SOUTH, 
BY A. E. GRIMKE. 



" Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not within thyself that thou shalt 
" escape in the king's house more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace 
" at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to tlie Jews from another 
"place : but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed : and who knoweth whetlier thou 
" ajt come to the kingdom for such a time as this. And Esther bade thein return Mordecai 
" this answer : — and so will I go m unto the king, which is not according to law, and if I perish, 
"I perish." Esther IV. 13—16. -- 

Respected Friends, 

It is because I feel a deep and tender interest in your present and 
eternal welfare that I am willing thus publicly to address you. Some 
of you have loved me as a relative, and some have felt bound to me 
ia Christian sympathy, and Gospel fellowship ; and even when com- 
pelled by a strong sense of duty, to break those outward bonds of 
union which bound us together as members of the same community, 
and members of the same religious denomination, you were generous 
enough to give me credit, for sincerity as a Christian, though you 
beUeved I had been most strangely deceived. I thanked you then 
for your kindness, and I ask you now, for the sake of former confi- 
dence, and fof mer friendship, to read the following pages in the spirit 
of calm investigation and fervent prayer. It is because you have 
known me, that I write thus unto you. 

But there are o^her Chri.';it)-'»ii v, omen scattered over the Southern 



States, and the^e, n v'(;r«' 
and never heard my 
But I feel an intei^* 
root I daily (Iia;«' 
in Christ I fee 
arisen on yom 
wondrous thii 
do pray for y 
of all othf 
*' would to 
deed bear w.L rr -., 
Be not afraJJ ih< ", tr, 
passion or preju'iicc, ou 
of conviction and duty. 




f whom have never seen me, 

110 interest whatever in me. 

,., , the same vine from whose 

fitdal vitahty — Yes! Sisters 

m often has the secret prayer 

|i their eyes that they may see 

is fb a, because I do feel and 

a a subject about which 

hear any thing; but, 

1 in my folly, and in- 

. ) -i; with godly jealousy." 

s ;«.'.; written in the heat of 

•nness which is the result 

^' jiiig to tell you unwel- 



couie truths, but I mean ia spoitk >AOse iruths in love, and remember 



7 



i'3 ^ D 

! ' 1 



Solomon says, "faithful are the ivounds of a friend." I do not oe- 
lieve the time has yet come when Chrislian women " will not endure 
sound doctrine," even on the subject of Slavery, if it is spoken to 
them in tenderness and love, therefore I now address tjou. 

To all of you then, known or unknown, relatives or strangers, (for 
you are all one in Christ,) I would speak. I have felt for you at this 
time, when unwelcome light is pouring in upon the world on the 
subject of slavery ; light which even Christians would exclude, if 
they could, from our country, or at any rate from the southern por- 
tion of it, saying, as its rays strike the rock bound coasts of New 
England and scatter their warmth and radiance over her hills and 
valleys, and from thence travel onward over the Palisades of the 
Hudson, and down the soft flowing waters of the Delaware and 
gild the waves of the Potomac, " hitherto shalt thou come and no 
further ;" I know that even professors of His name who has been 
emphatically called the " Light of the world" would, if they could, 
build a wall of adamant around the Southern States whose top might 
reach unto heaven, in order to shut out the light which is bounding 
from mountain to mountain and from the hills to the plains and val- 
leys beneath, through the vast extent of our Northern States. But 
believe me, when I tell you, their attempts will be as utterly fruit- 
less as were the efforts of the builders of Babel ; and why? Because 
moral, like natural light, is so extremely subtle in its nature as to 
overleap all human barriers, and laugh at the puny efforts of man to 
control it. All the excuses and palliations of this system must inevi- 
tably be swept away, just as other "refuges of lies" have been, by 
the irresistible torrent of a rectified public opinion. " The supporters 
of the slave system," says Jonathan Dymond in his admirable work 
on the Principles of Morality, "will hereafter be regarded with the same 
public feehng, as he who was an advocate for the slave trade now is.'^ 
It will be, and that very soon, clearly perceived and fully acknowl- 
edged by all the virtuous and the candid, that in principle it is as 
sinful to hold a human being in bondage who has been born in 
Carolina, as one who has b > j i:^:n in Africa- All that sophistry 
of argument which has bos- ; 0)^.10 v -^n«ove, that although it is 
sinful to send to Africa t ' iji :>c' '•men as slaves, who 

have never been in slavery ib? ifui 10 keep those in 

bondage who have come dov. ill ■be utterly over- 

thrown. We must come back > * >e of our fore- 

fathers who declared to the. w: ■ truth that all 

men are created equal, ai nadenahle rights 

among which are life, lib,:: ■ ,. piness." It is 

even a greater absurdity to SU" 'egally born a 

slave under our free EcpuhUrf .0 t nder the petty 

despotisms of barbarian A»' ■ no right to enslave 

an African, surely we caji fe^ an A inerican ; if it is 

a self evident truth that t and of every color are 

born equal, and have an i. dhertv, then it is equally 

true that no man can be bom a c^^ j^ >^^^ no man can ever rightfully 



^ be reduced to involuntary bondage and held as a slave, however fair 
'*«' may be the claim of his master or mistress through wills and title-deeds. 

(^ But after all, it may be said, our fathers were certainly mistaken, for 

the Bible sanctions Slavery, and that is the highest authority. Now 

(^ the Bible is my ultimate appeal in all matters of faith and practice, 
and it is to this test I am anxious to bring the subject at issue be- 
tween us. Let us then begin with Adam and examine the charter 
of privileges which was given to him. " Have dominion over the fish 
of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing 
that moveth upon the earth." In the eighth Psalm we have a still 
fuller description of this charter which through Adam was given to all 
mankind. " Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of 
thy hands ; thou hast put all things under his feet. All sheep and 
oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, the fish of 
the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas." 
And after the flood when this charter of human rights was renewed, 
we find no additional power vested in man. " And the fear of you 
and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and 
every fowl of the air, and upon all that moveth upon the earth, and 
upon all the fishes of the sea, into your hand are they dehvered." 
In this charter, although the different kinds of irrational beings are 
so particularly enumerated, and supreme dominion over all of them is 
granted, yet 7nan is tiever vested with this dominion over his fellow 
man; he was never told that any of the human species were put 
under his feet ; it was only all things, and man, who was created in 
the image of his Maker, never can properly be termed a thing, though 
the laws of Slave States do call him " a chattel personal ;" Man 
then, I assert never was put under the feet of man, by that first charter 
of human rights which was given by God, to the Fathers of the Ante- 
diluvian and Postdiluvian worlds, therefore this doctrine of equahty 
is based on the Bible. 

But it may be argued, that in the very chapter of Genesis from 
which I have last quoted, will be found the curse pronounced upon 
Canaan, by which his posterity was consigned to servitude under his 
brothers Shem an<^ Japheth. [ know this prophecy was uttered, and 
was most fearfully t'.n.l -nWy fulfilled, through the immediate 

descendants of Can .jia Canaanites, and I do not know but 

it has been throi = -en of Ham, but I do know that 

} prophecy does no ighl to he, but what actually does 

take place, ages i delivered, and that if we justify 

1 America for ensk n of Africa, we must also justify 

r Egypt for reducin Israel to bondage, for the latter 

was foretold as ei^i mer. I am well aware that pro- 

•^ phecy has often br excuse for Slavery, but be not 

deceived, the fulfiln. wiii^noi cover one sin in the awful 

day of account. !• iviour says on this subject ; " it 

must needs be thai but woe unto that man through 

whom they come" — V. i w « ^< luo lulfilment of this declaration in the 
tremendous destruct; oi Jerusalem, occasioned by that most nefa- 



rious of all crimes the crucifixion of the Son of God. Did the fact 
of that event having been foretold, exculpate the Jews from sin in 
perpetrating it ; No — for hear Vv'hat the Apostle Peter says to them 
on this subject, " Him being delivered by the determinate counsel 
and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have 
- crucified and slain." Other striking instances might be adduced, but 
these will suffice. 

But it has been urged that the patriarchs held slaves, and therefore, 
slavery is right. Do you really believe that patriarchal servitude was 
like American slavery ] Can you believe it ? If so, read the history of 
these primitive fathers of the church and be undeceived. Look at 
Abraham, though so great a man, going to the herd himself and 
fetching a calf from thence and serving it up with his own hands, for 
the entertainment of his guests. Look at Sarah, that princess as her 
name signifies, baking cakes upon the hearth. If the servants they 
had were like Southern slaves, would they have performed such 
comparatively menial offices for themselves ] Hear too the plaintive 
lamentation of Abraham when he feared he should have no son to 
bear his name down to posterity. " Behold thou hast given me no 
seed, &c, one born in my house is mine heir." From this it appears 
that one of his servants was to inherit his immense estate. Is this 
like Southern slavery 1 I leave it to your own good sense and candor 
to decide. Besides, such was the footing upon which Abraham was 
with his servants, that he trusted them with arms. Are slaveholders 
willing to put swords and pistols into the hands of their slaves ? He 
was as a father among his servants ; what are planters and masters 
generally among theirs? When the institution of circumcision was 
established, Abraham was commanded thus ; " He that is eight days 
old shall be circumcised among you, every man-child in your gene- 
rations ; he that is born in the house, or bought with money of 
any stranger which is not of thy seed." And to render this com- 
mand with regard to his servants still more impressive it is repeated 
in the very next verse ; and herein we may perceive the great care 
which was taken by God to guard the '•?-'': f servunts even under 
this " dark dispensation." Wh;'t '■•■o . rstimony given to the 

faithfulness of this eminent pat.: r, f, know him that he will 

command his children and hi ^HsHI^ ^'"^ ^^^Y ^^^'' 

keep the way of the Lord to ^PiPlwnt." Now my 

dear friends many of you belif ^. .s been super- 

seded by baptism in the Chui ', '• f ' ' ^^^® "^^ ^^^^ 

are born in your house or bo 'uht wit^ f - stranger, bap- 

tized? Are you as faithful as j\: m! /,n.. - ti ' ,, :r household to 

keep the way of the Lord? II ^ ^tuences to de^ 

cide. Was patriarchal servitude . />ery? 

But I shall be told, God s^^ ' - nmanded Sla- 

very under the Jewish Dispei wvi.: e this subject 

calmly and prayerfully. I adn <. ■" f^CTiiude was per" 

mitted to the Jews, but in stu t i -i vo been struck 

with wonder and admiration a ^ .*uw caretull/ the servaot 



was guarded from violence, injustice and wrong. I will first inform 
you how these servants became servants, for I think this a very im- 
portant part of our subject. From consulting Home, Calmet and 
the Bible, I find there were six different ways by which the Hebrews 
became servants legally. 

1. If reduced to extreme poverty, a Hebrew might sell himself, 
i. e. his services, for six years, in which case he received the purchase 
money himself. Lev. xxv, 39. 

2. A father might sell his children as servants, i. e. his daughters, 
in which circumstance it was understood the daughter was to be the 
wife or daughter-in-law of the man who bought her, and the father 
received the price. In other words, Jewish women were sold as while 
women were in the first settlement of Virginia — as wives, not as slaves. 
Ex. xxi, 7. 

3. Insolvent debtors might be delivered to their creditors as 
servants. 2 Kings iv, 1 

4. Thieves not able to make restitution for their thefts, were sold 
for the benefit of the injured person. Ex. xxii, 3. 

6. They might be born in servitude. Ex. xxi, 4. 

6. If a Hebrew had sold himself to a rich Gentile, he might be 
redeemed by one of his brethren at any time the money was offered ; 
and he who redeemed him, was not to take advantage of the favor 
thus conferred, and rule over him with rigor. Lev. xxv, 47 — 55. 

Before going into an examination of the laws by which these servants 
were protected, I would just ask whether American slaves have become 
slaves in any of the ways in which the Hebrews became servants. 
Did they sell themselves into slavery and receive the purchase money 
into their own hands ? No ! Did they become insolvent, and by their 
own imprudence subject themselves to be sold as slaves? No ! Did 
they steal the property of another, and were they sold to make restitu- 
tion for their crimes \ No ! Did their present masters, as an act of 
kindness, redeem them from some heathen tyrant to whom theij haq 
sold themselves in the dark iiour of adversity I No ! Were they born 
in slavery ? No ! No I rnK according to Jeivish Law, for the servants 
who were born in servitude among them, were born of parents who 
had sold theimteives for six years : Ex. xxi, 4. Were the female 
slaves of the South sold b?' - ' fathers ? How shall I answer this 
question? Thou- - ^ - - ' > f thousands never were, their fathers 
never hare recei lompensation of silver or gold for the 

tears and toils, th 1 siguish, and hopeless bondage of 

tJieir daughters. tv i.r day, and year by year, side by 

sid^, in the same fi. . Mf tiicir daughters are permitted to re- 

main on the s&me pU. • *ith ihem, instead of being as they often 

are, separated from t. -^sa.d sold into distant states, never 

again to meet on earth. ihit fathers of the South ever sell their 

dxiughters 1 My heart ^ ivv Imad trembles, as I write the 

awfiil affirmative, Ye he;^, of this Christian land often sell 

their daughters, ud as Jew -i; . t.rents did, to be the wives and daugh- 
tersrin-law of the man who uuys them, but to be the abject slaves of 



6 

petty tyrants and irresponsible masters. Is it not so, my friends ? 
leave it to your own candor to corroborate my assertion. SoutheiT 
slaves then have not become slaves in any of the six different ways 
in which Hebrews became servants, and I hesitate not to say that 
American tv-^sters cannot according to Jewish law substantiate their 
claim to the men, women, or children they now hold in bondage. 

But there was one way in which a Jew might illegally be reduced 
to servitude ; it was this, he might be stolen and afterwards sold as a 
slave, as was Joseph. To guard most effectually against this dread- 
ful crime of manstealing, God enacted this severe law. " He that 
stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall 
surely be put to death."* As I have tried American Slavery by 
le^al Hebrew servitude, and found, (to your surprise, perhaps,) that 
Jewish law cannot justify the slaveholder's claim, let us now try it by 
illegal Hebrew bondage. Have the Southern slaves then been 
stolen "? Tf they did not sell themselves into bondage ;. if they were 
not sold as insolvent debtors or as thieves ; if they were not redeemed 
from a heathen master to whom theij had sold themselves ; if they were 
not born in servitude according to Hebrew law ; and if the females 
were not sold by their fathers as wives and daughters-in-law to those 
who purchased them ; then what shall we say of them ? what can we 
say of them? but that according to Hebrew Law theij have been stolen. 

But I shall be told that the Jews had other servants who were 
absolute slaves. Let us look a little into this also. They had other 
servants who were procured in two different ways. 

1. Captives taken in war were reduced to bondage instead q 
being killed ; but we are not told that their children were enslaved 
Deut. XX, 14. 

2. Bondmen and bondmaids might be bought from the heathen 
round about them ; these were left by fathers to their children afler 
them, but it does not appear that the children of these servants ever 
were reduced to servitude. Lev. xxv, 44. 

I will now try the right of the southern planter by the claims of 
Hebrew masters over their heathen slaves. Were the southern slaves 
taken captive in war ? No ! Were they bought from the heathen 1 
No ! for surely, no one will now vindk;a,te the slave-trade so far as 
to assert that slaves were bought faiin the-]ft?s.b"n who were obtained 
by that system of piracy. The, only •■ ' holding southern 

slaves is that they were born in siavei ^.^^e seen that they 

were not born in servitude as JeAS#^ ' -ore, and that the 

children of heathen slaves were nof.;^ >l' cted to bondage 

even under the Mosaic Law. Hew t v, .he slaves of the 

South been obtained 1 j. 

I will next proceed to an exav - t- J laws which were 

enacted in order to protect the H" or v , a.. b'oathen servant ; for 
I wish you to understand that boU a- . pia< cU d r.y Him, of whom it is 

* And again, " If a ma.i be found stenling any of \nr, brethren of the children of 
Israel, and n.aketh merchandise of hi. n. or selleth hnn ; then (/.at thief shaU die , 
and thou shalt put away evil from amoisg you." Deut. xxiv, 7. 



said " his mercies are over all his works." I will first speak of those 
which secured the rights of Hebrew servants. This code was 
headed thus : 

1. Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor, but shalt fear thy God. 

2. If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve, and in 
the seventh year he shall go out free for nothing. Ex. xx, 2.* 

3. If he come in by himself, he shall go out by himself; if he were 
married, then his wife shall go out with him. 

4. If his master have given him a wife and she have borne him sons 
and daughters, the wife and lier children shall be his master's, and he 
shall go out by himself. 

5. If the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and 
my children ; I will not go out free ; then his master shall bring him 
unto the Judges, and he shall bring him to the door, or unto the 
door-post, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and 
he shall serve h\m forever. Ex. xxi, 3 — 6. 

6. If a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, 
that it perish, he shall let him go free for his eye's sake. And if he 
smite out his man servant's tooth or his maid servant's tooth, he shall 
let him go free for his tooth's sake. Ex. xxi, 26, 27. 

7. On the Sabbath rest was secured to servants by the fourth com- 
mandment. Ex. XX, 10. 

8. Servants were permitted to unite with their masters three times 
in every year in celebrating the Passover, the feast of Pentecost, and 
the feast of Tabernacles ; every male throughout the land was to 
appear before the Lord at Jerusalem with a gift ; here the bond and 
the free stood on common ground. Deut. xvi. 

9. If a man smite his servant or his maid with a rod, and he die 
under his hand, he shall be surely punished. Notwithstanding, if he 
continue a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his money. 
Ex. xxi, 20, 21. 

From these laws we learn that Hebrew men servants were bound 
to serve their masters onhj six years, unless their attachment to their 
employers, their wives and children, should induce them to wish to 
remain in servitude, in which case, in order to prevent the possibility 
of deception on the part of the master, the servant was first taken 
before the magistrate, where he openly declared his intention of con- 
tinuing in his master's service, (probably a public register was kept 
of such) he was then conducted to the door of the house, (in warm 
climates doors are thrown open,) and there his ear was publicly bored, 
and by submitting to this operation he testified his willingness to serve 
him forever, i. e. duting his life, for Jewish Rabbins who must have 
understood Jewish slavery, (as it is called,) " afiirm that servants 
were set free at the death of their masters and did not descend to 
their heirs :" or that he was to serve him until the year of Jubilee, 

* And when thon sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away 
empty : Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock and out of thy floor, and 
out of thy wine-press : of that wherewith th« Lord thy God hath blessed thee, shalt 
tboa give unto bus. Deut xv, 13, 14. 



8 

when all servants were set at liberty. To protect servants rrorri 
violence, it was ordained that if a master struck out the tooth or 
destroyed the eye of a servant, that servant immediately became 
free, for such an act of violence evidently showed he was unfit to 
possess the power of a master, and therefore that power was taken 
from him. All servants enjoyed the rest of the Sabbath and partook 
of the privileges and festivities of the three great Jewish Feasts ; and 
if a servant died under the infliction of chastisement, his master was 
surely to be punished. As a tooth for a tooth and life for life was the 
Jewish law, of course he was punished with death. I know that 
great stress has been laid upon the following verse : " Notwithstand- 
ing, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is 
his money." 

Slaveholders, and the apologists of slavery, have eagerly seized 
upon this little passage of scripture, and held it up as the masters' 
Magna Charta, by which they were licensed by God himself to 
commit the greatest outrages upon the defenceless victims of their 
oppression. But, my friends, was it designed to be so ? If our Hea- 
venly Father would protect by law the eye and the tooth of a Hebrew 
servant, can we for a moment beheve that he would abandon that 
same servant to the brutal rage of a master who would destroy even 
life itself. Do we not rather see in this, the only law which protected 
masters, and was it not right that in case of the death of a servant, one 
or two days after chastisement was inflicted, to which other circum- 
stances might have contributed, that the master should be protected 
when, in all probability, he never intended to produce so fatal a result? 
But the phrase " he is his money" has been adduced to show that 
Hebrew servants were regarded as mere things, " chattels personal ;" 
if so, why were so many laws made to secure their rights as men, and 
to ensure their rising into equality and freedom 1 If they were mere 
things, why were they regarded as responsible beings, and one law 
made for them as well as for their masters ? But I pass on now to 
the consideration of how the female Jewish servants were protected 
by laic. 

1. If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to him- 
self, then shall he let her be redeemed : to sell her unto another nation 
he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her. 

2. If he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her 
after the manner of daughters. 

3. If he take him another wife, her food, her raiment, and her duty 
of marriage, shall he not diminish. / 

4. If he do not these three unto her, then fehall she go out free 
without money. 

On these laws I will give you Calmet's remarks ; " A father could 
not sell his daughter as a slave, according to the Rabbins, until she 
was at the age of puberty, and unless he were reduced to the utmost 
indigence. Besides, when a master bought an Israelitish girl, it was 
alivays with the presumption that he would take her to wife. Hence 
Moses adds, *■ if she please not her master* and he does not tliiak fit 



9 

to marry her, he shall set her at liberty,' or according to the Hebrew, 
' he shall let her be redeemed.' ' To sell her to another nation he shall 
have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her ;' as to the 
engagement implied, at least of taking her to wife. ' If he have be- 
trothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of 
daughters, i. e. he shall take care that his son uses her as his wife, 
that he does not despise or maltreat her. If he make his son marry 
another wife, he shall give her her dowry, her clothes and compensation 
for her virginity ; if he does none of these three, she shall go out free 
without money." Thus were the rights of female servants carefully 
secured by law under the Jewish Dispensation ; and now I would 
ask, are the rights of female slaves at the South thus secured 1 Are 
they sold only as wives and daughters-in-law, and when not treated 
as such, are they allowed to go out free ? No ! They have all not 
only been illegally obtained as servants according to Hebrew law, 
but they are also illegally held in bondage. Masters at the South 
and West have all forfeited their claims, {f they ever had any,) to 
their female slaves. 

We come now to examine the case of those servants who were "of 
the heathen round about ;" Were they left entirely unprotected by 
law? Home in speaking of the law, " Thou shalt not rule over him 
with rigor, but shalt fear thy God," remarks, " this law Lev. xxv, 43, 
it is true speaks expressly of slaves who were of Hebrew descent; 
but as alien born slaves were ingrafted into the Hebrew Church by 
circumcision, there is no doubt but that it applied to all slaves ;" if so, 
then we may reasonably suppose that the other protective laws ex- 
tended to them also ; and that the only difference between Hebrew 
and Heathen servants lay in this, that the former served but six years 
unless they chose to remain longer, and were always freed at the 
death of their masters ; whereas the latter served until the year of 
Jubilee, though that might include a period of forty-nine years, — and 
were left from father to son. 

There are however two other laws which I have not yet noticed; 
The one efiectually prevented all involuntary sei-vitude, and the other 
completely abolished Jewish servitude every tifty years. They were 
equally operative upon the Heathen and the Hebrew. 

1. "Thou shall not deliver unto his master the servant that is es- 
caped from his master unto thee. He shall dwell with thee, even" 
among you, in that place which he shall choose, in one of thy gates 
where it liketh him best: thou shall not oppress him." Deut. xxxiii, 
15, 16. 

2. "And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim Liberty 
thoughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a 
jubilee unto you." Deut. xxv, 10. 

Here, then, we see that by this first law, the door of Freedom was 
opened wide to every servant who had any cause whatever for complaint j 
if he was unhappy with his master, all he had to do was to leave him, 
and no man had a right to deliver him back to him again, and not only 
so, but the absconded servant was to choose where he should live, 

2 



10 

and no Jew was permitted to oppress him. He left his master just 
as our Northern servants leave us ; we have no power to compel them 
to remain with us, and no man has any right to oppress them ; they 
go and dwell in that place where it chooseth them, and live just where 
they like. Is it so at the South 1 Is the poor runaway slave protect- 
ed by law from the violence of that master whose oppression and 
cruelty has driven him from his plantation or his house \ No ! no ! 
Even the free states of the North are compelled to deliver unto his- 
master the servant that is escaped from his master into them. By 
human law, under the Christian Dispensation, in the nineteenth century 
ive are commanded to do, what God more than three thousand years 
ao-o, under the JMosuic Dispensation, positively commanded the Jews 
not to do. In the wide domain even of our free states, there is not 
one city of refuge for the poor runaway fugitive ; not one spot upon 
which he can stand and say, I am a free man — I am protected in my 
rights as a man, by the strong arm of the law ; no ! not one. How 
long the North will thus shake hands with the South in sin, I know 
not. How long she will stand by like the persecutor Saul, consenting 
unto the death of Stephen, and keeping the raiment of them that slew 
him. I know not ; but one thing I do know, the guilt of the North 
is increasing in a tremendous ratio as light is pouring in upon her on 
the subject and the sin of slavery. As the sun of righteousness 
climbs higher and higher in the moral heavens, she will stand still 
more andmore abashed as the query is thundered down into her ear^ 
*' Who hath required this at thy handl" It will be found no excuse then 
that the Constitution of our country required that joe?-so?zs bound to ser- 
vice escaping from their masters should be deUvered up ; no more 
excuse than was the reason which Adam assigned for eating the for- 
bidden fruit. He was condemned and punished because he hearkened 
to the voice of histcife, rather than to the command of his Maker ; and 
we will assuredly be condemned and punished for obeying Man rather 
than God, if we do not speedily repent and bring forth fruits meet for 
repentance. Yea, are we not receiving chastisement even 7iow ? 

But by the second of these laws a still more astonishing fact is 
disclosed. If the first effectually prevented all involuntary servitude, 
the last absolutely forbade even voluntary servitude being perpetual 
On the great day of atonement every fiftieth year the Jubilee trumpet 
was sounded throughout the land of Judea, and Libejiij was proclaim- 
ed to all the inhabitants thereof. I will not say that the servants' 
chains fell off and their manacles were burst, for there is no evidence 
that Jewish servants ever felt the weight of iron chains, and collars, 
and handcuffs ; but I do say that even the man who had voluntarily 
sold himself and the heathen who had been sold to a Hebrew master,- 
were set free, the one as well as the other. This law was evidently 
designed to prevent the oppression of the poor, and the possibility of 
such a thing as perpetual servitude existing among them. 

Where, then, I would ask, is the warrant, the justification, or the 
palUation of American Slavery from Hebrew servitude ] How many 
of the southern slaves would now be in bondage according to the 



11 

laws of Moses ; Not one. You may obseiTe that I have carefullj 
avoided using the term slavery when speaking of Jewish servitude ; 
and simply for this reason, that no suck thing existed among that 
people ; the word translated servant does not mean slave, it is the 
same that is applied to Abraham, to Moses, to Elisha and the pro- 
phets generally. Slavery then never existed under the Jewish Dis- 
pensation at all, and I cannot but regard it as an aspersion on the 
character of Him who is "glorious in Holiness" for any one to assent 
that " God sanctioned, yea commanded slavery under the aid dispen- 
sation." I would fain lift my feeble voice to vindicate Jehovah's 
character from so foul a slander. If slaveholders are determined to 
hold slaves as long as they can, let them not dare to say that the 
God of mercy and of truth ever sanctioned such a system of cruelty 
and wrong. It is blasphemy against Him. 

We have seen that the code of laws framed by Moses with regard 
to servants was designed to protect them as men and women, to secure 
to them their rights as human beings, to guard them from oppression 
and defend them from violence of every kind. Let us now turn to 
the Slave laws of the South and West and eaxmine them too. I will 
give you the substance only, because I fear I shall tresspass too 
much on your time, were I to quote them at length. 

1. Slavery is hereditary and peqietual, to the last moment of the 
slave's earthly existence, and to all his descendants to the latest pos- 
terity. 

^. The labor of the slave is compulsory and uncompensated^ 
while the kind of labor, the amount of toil, the time allowed for rest, 
are dictated solely by the ma-ster. No bargain is made, no wages 
given. A pure despotism governs the human brute ; and even his 
covering and provender, both as to quantity and quality, depend en- 
tirely on the masters discretion.* 

3. The slave being considered a personal chattel may be sold or 
pledged, or leased at the will of his master. He may be exchanged 
for marketable commodities, or taken in execution for the debts or 
taxes either of a Uving or dead master. Sold at auction, cither in- 
dividually, or in lots to suit the purchaser, he may remain with his 
family, or be separated from them for ever. 

4. Slaves can make no contracts and have no legal right to any 
property, real or personal. Their own honest earnings and the lega- 
cies of friends belong in point of law to their masters. 

6. Neither a slave nor a free colored person can be a witness 

* There are laws in some of the slave states, limiting the labor which the master 
may require of the slave to fourteen hours daily. In some of the states there are 
laws requiring tlie masters to furnish a certain amount of food and clothing, as for 
instance, one quart of com per day, or one peck per week, or one bushel per month, 
and "one hnen shirt and pantaloons for the summer, and a linen shirt and woolen 
great coat and pantaloons for the winter," &c. But "still," to use the language of 
Judge Stroud " the slave is entirely under the control of his master, — is unprovided 
with a protector, — and, especially as he cannot be a witness or make complaint ia 
any known mode against his master, the apparent object of these laws may always 
be'defeated," Ed. 



12 

against any white, or free person, in a court of justice, however atro- 
cious may have been the crimes they have seen him connnit, if such 
testimony w ould be for the benefit of a slave ; but they may give tes- 
timony against a fellow slave, or free colored man, even in cases 
affecting hfe, if the tnaster is to reap the advantage of it, 

6. The slave may be punished at his master's discretion — without 
trial — without any means of legal redress ; whedier his offence be 
real or imaginary ; and the master can transfer the same despotic 
power to any person or persons, he may choose to appoint. 

7. The slave is not allowed to resist any free man under amj cir- 
cumstances, his only safety consists in the fact that his oimer may 
bring suit and recover the price of his body, in case his life is taken, 
or his limbs rendered unfit for labor. 

8. Slaves cannot redeem themselves, or obtain a change of masr 
ters, though cruel treatment may have rendered such a change ne- 
cessary for their personal safety. 

9. The slave is entirely unprotected in his domestic relations. 

10. The laws greatly obstruct the manumission of slaves, even 
where the master is willing to enfranchise them. 

11. The operation of the laws tends to deprive slaves of religious 
instruction and consolation. 

12. The whole power of the laws is exerled to keep slaves in a 
state of the lowest ignorance. 

13. There is in this country a monstrous inequality of law and 
right. What is a trifling fault in the white man, is considered highly 
criminal in the slave ; the same offences which cost a white man a 
few dollars only, are punished in the negro with death. 

14. The laws operate most oppressively upon free people of color.* 
Shall I ask you now my friends, to draw the parallel between Jew- 
ish servitude and American slavery 1 No ! For there is na likeness 
in the two systems ; I ask you rather to mark the contrast. The 
laws of Moses protected servants in their rights as men and women, 
guarded them from oppression and defended them from wrong. The 
Code Noir of the South robs the slave of all his rights as a man, re- 
duces him to a chattel personal, and defends the master in the exer- 
cise of the most unnatural and unwarantable power over his slave. 
They each bear the impress of the hand which formed them. The 
attributes of justice and mercy are shadowed out in the Hebrew 
code ; those of injustice and cruelty, in the Code Noir of America. 
Truly it was wise in the slaveholders of the South to declare their 
slaves to be " chattels personal ;" for before they could be robbed 
of wages, wives, chddren, and friends, it was absolutely necessary to 
deny tliey were human beings. It is wise in them, to keep them in 
abject ignorance, for the strong man armed must be bound before Ave 
can spoil his house— the powerful intellect of man must be bound 
down with tne iron chains of nescience before we can rob him of his 
rights as a man ; we must reduce him to a thing before we can claim 

See Mrs. Child's Appeal, Chap. II. 



13 

the right to set our feet upon his neck, because it was only all things 
which were originally put under the feet of man by the Almighty and 
Beneficent Father of all, who has declared himself to be no respecter 
of persons, whether red, white or black. 

But some have even said that Jesus Christ did not condemn sla- 
very. To this I reply that our Holy Redeemer lived and preached 
among the Jews only. The laws which Moses had enacted fifteen 
hundred years previous to his appearance among theiu, had never 
been annulled, and these laws protected every servant in Palestine. 
If then He did not condemn Jewish servitude this does not prove 
that he would not have condemned such a monstrous system as that 
of American slavery, if that had existed among them. But did not 
Jesus condemn slavery 1 'Let us examine some of his precepts. 
" Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to 
them,^' Let every slaveholder apply these queries to his own heart ; 
Am 1 willing to be a slave — Am I willing to see my wife the slave 
of another — Am /willing to see my mother a slave, or my father, 
my sister or my brother] If not, then in holding others as slaves, I 
am doing what I would not wish to be done to me or any relative I 
have ; and thus have I broken this golden rule which was given me 
to walk by. 

But some slaveholders have said, " we v/ere never in bondage to 
any man," and therefore the yoke of bondage would be insufferable 
to us, but slaves are accustomed to it, their backs are fitted to the 
burden. Well, I am willing to admit that you who have lived in free 
dom would find slavery even more oppressive than the poor slave 
does, but then you may try this question in another form — Am I wil- 
ling to reduce my little child to slavery 1 You knov/ that if if is 
brought up a slave it will never know any contrast, between freedom 
and bondage, its back will become fitted to the burden just as the 
negro child's does — not by nature — but by daily, violent pressure, in 
the same way that the head of the Indian child becomes flattened by 
the boards in which it is bound. It has been justly remarked that 
" God never made a slave," he made man upright ; his back was not 
made to carry burdens, nor his neck to wear a yoke, and the man 
must be crushed within him, before his back can be ftted to the bur- 
den of perpetual slavery ; and that his back is not fitted to it, is man- 
ifest by the insurrections that so often disturb the peace and security 
of slaveholding countries. Who ever heard of a rebellion of the 
beasts of the field; and why not? simply because they were all placed 
under the feet of man, into whose hand they were delivered ; it was 
originally designed that they should serve him, therefore their necks 
have been formed for the yoke, and their backs for the burden ; but 
not so with man, intellectual, immortal man ! I appeal to you, my 
friends, as mothers; Are you willing to enslave your children? You 
start back with horror and indignation at such a question. But why, 
if slavery is ho wrong to those upon whom it is imposed ? why, if 
as has often been said, slaves are happier than their masters, free 
from the cares and perplexities of providing for themselves and their 



14 

fiimilies? why not piace your children in the way of being supported 
without your having the trouble to provide for them, or they for 
themselves ? Do you not perceive that as soon as this golden rule of 
action is applied to yourselves that you involuntarily shrink from the 
test ; as soon as your actions are weighed in this balance of the sanc- 
tuary that you are found ivanlmgl Try yourselves by another of the 
Divine precepts, " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Can 
we love a man as we love ourselves if we do, and continue to do unto 
him, what we would not wish any one to do to us 1 Look too, at 
Christ's example, what does he say of himself, " 1 came not to be 
ministered unto, but to minister." Can you for a moment imagine 
the meek, and lowly, and compassionate Saviour, a slaveholder 1 do 
you not shudder at this thought as much as at that of his being a icar- 
riorl But why, if slavery is not sinful ? 

Again, it has been said, the Apostle Paul did not condemn Slavery, 
for he sent Onesimus back to Philemon. I do not think it can be 
said he sent him back, for no coercion was made use of. Onesimus 
was not thrown into prison and then sent back in chains to his master, 
as your runaway slaves often are — this could not possibly have been 
the case, because you know Paul as a Jew, was bound to protect the 
runaway, he had no right to send any fugitive back to his master. 
The state of the case then seems to have been this. Onesimus had 
been an unprofitable servant to Philemon and left him — he afterwards 
became converted under the Apostle's preaching, and seeing that he 
had been to blame in his conduct, and desiring by future fidelity to 
alone for past error, he wished to return, and the Apostle gave him 
the letter we now have as a recommendation to Philemon, informing 
him of the conversion of Onesimus, and entreating him as "Paul the 
aged" " to receive him, not now as a servant, but above a servant, a 
brother beloved, especially to me, but how much more unto thee, 
both in the fiesh and in the Lord. If thou count me therefore as a 
partner, receive him as myself.''^ This then surely cannot be forced 
into a justification of the practice of returning runaway slaves back 
to their masters, to be punished with cruel beatings and scourgings 
as they often are. Besides the word 6ov?.og here translated servant, 
is the same that is made use of in Matt, xviii, 27. Now it appears 
that this servant owed his lord ten thousand talents ; he possessed 
property to a vast amount. Onesimus could not then have been a 
slave, for slaves do not own their wives, or children ; no, not even 
their own bodies, much less property. But again, the servitude which 
the apostle was accustomed to, must have been very different frpn) 
American slavery, for he says, "the heir (or son), as long as he is a 
child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all. But 
is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father." 
From this it appears, that the means of instruction were provided for 
servants as well as children ; and indeed we know it must have been 
so among the Jews, because their servants were not permitted to 
remain in perpetual bondage, and therefore it was absolutely neces- 
sary they should be prepared to occupy higher stations in society 



15 

than those of servants. Is it so at tlie South, my friends ? Is thfy 
daily bread of instruction provided for your slaves 1 are their minds 
enlightened, and they gradually prepare'd to rise from the grade of 
menials into that of free, independent members of the state 1 Let 
your own statute book, and your own daily experience, answer these 
questions. 

If this apostle sanctioned slavery, why did he exhort masters thus 
in his epistle to the Ephesians, " and ye, masters, do the same things 
unto them (i. e. perform your duties to your servants as unto Christ, 
not unto me) forbearing threatening ; knowing that your master also 
is in heaven, neither is there respect of persons with him.'^ And in. 
Colossians, " Masters give unto your servants that which is just and 
equal, knowing that ye also have a master in heaven." Let slave- 
holders only obey these injunctions of Paul, and I am satisfied slavery 
would soon be abolished. If he thought it sinful even to threaten 
servants, surely he must have thought it sinful to flog and to beat 
them with sticks and paddles ; indeed, when delineating the character 
of a bishop, he expressly names this as one feature of it, " no striker.^'' 
Let masters give unto their servants that which is just and equal, and 
all that vast system of unrequited labor would crumble into ruin. 
Yes, and if they once felt they had no right to the labor of their ser- 
vants without pay, surely they could not think they had a right to 
their wives, their children, and their own bodies. Again, how can it 
be said Paul sanctioned slavery, when, as though to put this matter 
beyond all doubt, in that black catalogue of sins enumerated in his 
first epistle to Timothy, he mentions " tnenstealers," which word may 
be translated " slavedealers." But you may say, we all despise slave- 
dealers as much as any one can ; they are never admitted into genteel 
or respectable society. And why not 1 Is it not because even you 
shrink back from the idea of associating with those who make their 
fortunes by trading in the bodies and souls of men, women, and chil- 
dren ? whose daily work it is to break human hearts, by tearing wives 
from their husbands, and children from their parents 1 But why hold 
slavedealers as despicable, if their trade is lawful and virtuous "? and 
why despise them more than the gentlemen of fortune and standing 
who employ them as their agents ? Why more than the professors of 
religion who barter their fellow-professors to them for gold and silver? 
We do not despise the land agent, or the physician, or the merchant, 
and why 1 Simply because their professions are virtuous and honora- 
ble ; and if the trade of men-jobbers was honorable, you would not 
despise them either. There is no difference in -principle, in Christian 
ethics, between the despised slavedealer and the Christian who buys 
slaves from, or sells slaves to him ; indeed, if slaves were not wanted 
by the respectable, the wealthy, and the religious in a community, 
there would be no slaves in that community, and of course no slave- 
dealers. It is then the Christians and the honorable men and women 
of the South, who are the main pillars of this grand temple built to 
Mammon and to Moloch. It is the most enlightened in every country 
who are most to blame when any public sin is supported by publie 



16 " 

opinion, hence Isaiah says, " When the Lord hath performed his 
whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, (then) I will punish 
the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his 
high looks/' And was it not so? Open the historical records of 
that age, was not Israel carried into captivity B.C. 606, Judah B.C. 
588, and the stout heart of the heathen monarchy not punished until 
B. C. 536, fifty-two years after Judah's, and seventy years after 
Israel's captivity, when it was overthrown by Cyrus, king of Persia 1 
Hence, too, the apostle Peter says, "judgment must beo;in at the 
house of God.^^ Surely this would not be the case, if the professors of 
religion were not most icorthij of blame. 

But it may be asked, why are they most culpable ? I will tell you, 
my friends. It is because sin is imputed to us just in proportion to 
the spiritual light we receive. Thus the prophet Amos says, in the 
name of Jehovah, " You only have I known of all the families of the 
earth : therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities." Hear too 
the doctrine of our Lord on this important subject ; " The servant 
who knew his Lord's will and prepared not himself, neither did ac- 
cording to his will, shall be beaten with 7nany stripes:" and why] 
" For unto whomsoever muck is given, of him shall 7nuch be required; 
and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the 
more." Oh! then that the Christians of the south would ponder these 
things in their hearts, and awake to the vast responsibilities which 
rest upon them at this important crisis. 

I have thus, I think, clearly proved to you seven propositions, viz. : 
First, that slavery is contrary to the declaration of our independence. 
Second, that it is contrary to the first charter of human rights given 
to Adam, and renewed to Noah. Third, that the fact of slavery 
having been the subject of prophecy, furnishes no excuse whatever to 
slavedealers. Fourth, that no such system existed under the patri- 
archal dispensation. Fifth, that slavery never existed under the Jew- 
ish dispensation ; but so far otherwise, that every servant was placed 
vmder the protection of laio, and care taken not only to prevent all 
involuntanj servitude, but all voluntary perpetual bondage. Sixth, 
that slavery in America reduces a man to a thing, a " chattel per- 
sonal," rohs him of all his rights as a human being, fetters both his 
mind and body, and protects the master in the most unnatural and 
unreasonable power, wliilst it throws him out of the protection of law. 
Seventh, that slavery is contrary to the example and precepts of our 
holy and merciful Redeemer, and of his apostles. 

But perhaps you will be ready to query, why appeal to ivomen on 
this subject ? We do not make the laws which perpetuate slavery. 
JVo legislative power is vested in us ; we can do nothing to over- 
throw the system, even if we wished to do so. To this I reply, I 
know you do not make the laws, but I also know that you are the ivives 
and mothers, the sisters and daughters of those who do; and if you really 
suppose you can do nothing to overthrow slavery, you are greatly 
mistaken. You can do much in every way : four things I will name. 
1st. You can read on this subject. 2d. You can pray over this sub- 



It 

ject. 3d. You can speak on this subject. 4th. You can act on this 
subject. I have not placed reading before praying because I regard 
it more important, but because, in order to pray aright, we must un- 
derstand what we are praying for ; it is only then we can " pray with 
the understanding and the spirit also." 

1. Read then on the subject of slavery. Search the Scriptures 
daily, whether the things I have told you are true. .0th :r books and 
papers might be a great help to you in this investigation, but they are 
not necessary, and it is hardly probable that your Committees of Vigil- 
ance will allow you to have any other. The Bible then is the book 
I want you to read in the spirit of inquiry, and the spirit of prayer. 
Even the enemies of Abolitionists, acknowledge that their doctrines 
are drawn from it. In the great mob in Boston, last autumn, when 
the books and papers of the Anti-Slavery Society, were thrown out 
of the windows of their office, one individual laid hold of the Bible 
and was about tossing it out to the ground, when another reminded 
him that it was the Bible he had in his hand. "0/ Uis all one,'" he 
replied, and out went the sacred volume, along with the rest. A\e 
thank him for the acknowledgment. Yes, " it is all one," for our 
books and papers are mostly commentaries on the Bible, and the 
Declaration. Read the Bible then, it contains the words of Jesus, 
and they are spirit and life. Judge for yourselves whether he sanc- 
tioned such a system of oppression and crime. 

2. Pray over this subject. When you have entered into your 
closets, and shut to the doors, then pray to your father, who seeth in 
secret, that he would open your eyes to see whether slavery is sinful, 
and if it is, that he would enable you to bear a faithful, open and un- 
shrinking testimony against it, and to do whatsoever your hands find 
to do, leaving the consequences entirely to him, who still says to us 
whenever we try to reason away duty from the fear of consequences, 
'■'■What is that to thee, follow thou ?tte." Pray also for that poor slave^ 
that he may be kept patient and :«uba-iissive under his hard lot, until 
God is pleased to open the door of freedom to him without violence 
or bloodshed. Pray too for the master that his heart may be softened, 
and he made willing to acknowledge, as Joseph's brethren did, "Verily 
we are guilty concerning our brother," before he will be compellrd to 
add in consequence of Divine judgment, "therefore is all this evil 
come upon us." Pray also for all your brethren and sisters who are 
laboring in the righteous cause of Emancipation in the Northern 
States, England and the world. There is great encouragement for 
prayer in these words of our Lord. "Whatsoever ye shall ask the 
P'ather in nuj name, he will gice it to you" — Pray then without ceas- 
ing, in the closet and the social circle. 

3. Speak on this subject. It is through the tongue, the pen, and 
the press, that truth is principally propagcited. Speak then to your 
relatives, your friends, your acquaintances on the subject of slavery ; 
be not afraid if you are conscientiously convinced it is sinful, to say 
so openly, but calmly, and to let your sentiments be known. If you 
are served bv the slaves of others, try to ameliorate their condition as 

3 



18 

much as possible ; never aggravate their faults, and thus add fuel to 
the fire of anger already kindled, in a master and mistress's bosom ; 
remember their extreme ignorance, and consider them as your Hea- 
venly Father does the less culpable on this account, even when they 
do wrong things. Discountenance all cruelty to them, all starvation, 
all corporal chastisement ; these may brutalize and break their spirits, 
but will never bend them to wilhng, cheerful obedience. If possible, 
see that they are comfortably and seasonably fed, whether in the house 
or the field ; it is unreasonable and cruel to expect slaves to wait for 
their breakfast until eleven o'clock, when they rise at five or six. Do 
all you can, to induce their owners to clothe them well, and to allow 
them many little indulgences which would contribute to their comfort. 
Above all, try to persuade your husband, father, brothers and sons, 
that slavery is a crime against God and man, and that it is a great sin 
to keep human beings in such abject ignorance ; to deny them the 
privilege of learning to read and write. The Catholics are univer- 
sally condemned, for denying the Bible to the common people, but, 
slaveholders must not blame them, for they are doing the very same 
thing, and for the very same reason, neither of these systems can 
bear the light which bursts from the pages of that Holy Book. And 
lastly, endeavour to inculcate submission on the part of the slaves, 
but whilst doing this be faithful in pleading the cause of the oppressed. 

" "Will you behold unheeding, 

Life's holiest feelings crushed, 
Where iooma/1'5 heart is bleeding, 

Shall woman''s voice be hushed?" 

4. Act on this subject. Some of you oim slaves yourselves. If 
you believe slavery is sinful, set them at liberty, " undo the heavy 
burdens and let the oppressed go free." If they wish to remain with 
you, pay them wages, if not let them leave you. Should they remain 
teach them, and have them taught the common branches of an Eng- 
lish education ; they have minds and those minds, ought to he improved. 
So precious a talent as intellect, never was given to be wrapt in a 
napkin and buried in the earth. It is the duty of all, as far as they 
can, to improve their own mental faculties, because we are com- 
manded to love God with all our minds, as well as with ail our hearts, 
and we commit a great sin, if we forbid or prevent that cultivation of 
the mind in others, which would enable them to perform this duty. 
Teach your servants then to read &c, and encourage them to believe 
it is their duty to learn, if it were only that they might read the Bible. 

But some of you will say, we can neither free our slaves nor teach 
them to read, for the laws of our state forbid it. Be not surprised 
■when I say such wicked laws ought to be no harrier in the way of 
your duty, and I appeal to the Bible to prove this position. What 
was the conduct of Shiphrah and Puah, when the king of Egypt 
issued his cruel mandate, with regard to the Hebrew children! 
" They feared God, and did not as the King of Egypt commanded 
them, but saved the men children alive." Did these u-ofnen do right 



19 

in disobeying that monarch 1 " Therefore (says the sacred text,) God 
dealt icell with them, and made them houses" Ex. i. What was the 
conduct of Shadrach, IVIeshach, and Abednego, when Nebuchadnez- 
zar set up a golden image in the plain of Duia, and commanded all 
people, nations, and languages, to fall down and worship it] "Be it 
known, unto thee, (said these faithful Jews) king, that ive will not 
serve thy gods, nor worship the image which thou hast set up." Did 
these men do right in disobeying the law of their sovereign? Let their 
miraculous dehverance from the burning fiery furnace, answer ; Dan. 
iii. What was the conduct of Daniel, when Darius made a firm decree 
that no one should ask a petition of any man or God for thirty days ] 
Did the prophet cease to pray? No ! "When Daniel hnew that the 
loriting i«as signed, he went into his house, and his windows being 
open towards Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a 
day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he did afore- 
time." Did Dani 1 do right thus to break the law of his king? Let 
his wonderful deliverance out of the mouths of the lions answer ; 
Dan. vii. Look, too, at the Apostles Peter and John. When the 
rulers of the Jews, " commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach 
in the name of Jesus," what did they say ? " Whether it be right in 
the sight of God, to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge 
ye." °And what did they do ? " They spake the word of God with 
boldness, and with great power gave the Apostles witness of the re- 
surrection of the Lord Jesus ;" although this was the very doctrine, 
for the preaching of which, they had just been cast into prison, and 
further threatened. Did these men do right? I leave ijou to answer, 
who now enjoy the benefits of their labors and sufferings, in that 
Gospel they dared to preach when positively commanded not to teach 
any more in the name of Jesus ; Acts iv. 

But some of you may say, if we do free our slaves, they will be 
taken up and sold, therefore there will be no use in doing it. Peter 
and John might just as well have said, we will not preach the gospel, 
for if we do, we shall be taken up and put in prison, therefore there 
will be no use in our preaching. Consequences, my friends, belong no 
more to you, than they did to these apostles. Duty is ours and events 
are God's. If you think slavery is sinful, all you have to do is to set 
your slaves at liberty, do all you can to protect them, and in humble 
faith and fervent prayer, commend them to your common Father. 
He can take care of them ; but if for wise purposes he sees fit to 
allow them to be sold, this will afibrd you an opportunity of testifying 
openly, wherever you go, against the crime of manstealing. Such 
an act will be clear robbery, and if exposed, might, under the Divine 
direction, do the cause of Emancipation more good, than any thing 
that could happen, for, " He makes even the wrath of man to praise 
him, and the remainder of wrath he will restrain." 

I know that this doctrine of obeying God, rather than man, will be 
considered as dangerous, and heretical by many, but I am not afraid 
openly to avow it, because it is the doctrine of the Bible ; but I would 
not be understood to advocate resistance to any law however op* 



20 

pvessivp, if, in obeying it, I was not oljliged to commit sin. If for 
instance, there was a law, wliifh imposed imprisonment or a fine 
upon me if I manumitted a slave, I would on no account resist that 
law, I would set the slave free, and then go to prison or pay the fine. 
If a law commands me to sin I trill break il; if it calls me to svffer, I 
will let it take its course vnresislinghj. The doctrine of blind obedi- 
ence and unqualified submission to any human power, whether civil or 
ecclesiastical, is the doctrine of despotism, and ought to have no place 
among Republicans and Christians. 

But you will perhaps say, such a course of conduct would inevita- 
bly expose us to great suffl-ring. Yes ! my christian friends, I be- 
lieve it would, but this will not excuse you or any one else for the 
neglect of chtij. If Prophets and Apostles, Martyrs, and Reformers 
had not been willing to suffer for the truth's sake, where would the 
world have been now ? If they had said, we cannot speak the truth, 
we cannot do what we believe is right, because the laws of our coimlnj 
or public opinion are against us, where would our holy religion have 
been now? The Prophets were stoned, imprisoned, and kdled by 
the Jews. And why 1 Because they exposed and openly rebuked 
pubhc sins ; they opposed public opinion ; had they held their peace, 
they all might have lived in ease and died in favor with a wicked gen- 
oration. Why were the Apostles persecuted from city to city, stoned, 
incarcerated, beaten, and crucified 1 Because they dared to &peak the 
truth ; to tell the Jews, boldly and fearlessly, that iheij were the mur- 
derers of the Lord of Glory, and that, however great a stumbling- 
block the Cross might be to them, there was no other name given 
under heaven by which men could be saved, but the name of Jesus. 
Because they declared, even at Athens, the seat of learning and re- 
finement, the self-evident truth, that " they be no gods that are made 
with men's hands," and exposed to the Grecians the foolishness of 
worldiv wisdom, and the impossibility of salvation but through Christ, 
Avhom" they despised on account of the ignominious death he died. 
Because at Rome, the proud mistress of the world, they thundered 
out the terrors of the law upon that idolatrous, war-making, and slave- 
holding community. Wliy v,'ere the martyrs stretched upon the 
rack, eibbctted and burnt, the scorn and diversion of a Nero, whilst 
their tarred and burning bodies, sent up a light which illuminated the 
Roman capital 1 Why weie the W' aldenses hunted like wild beasts 
upon the mountains of Piedmont, and slain with the sword of the 
Duke of Savoy and the proud monarch of France 1 Why were the 
Presbyterians chased like the partridge over the highlands of Scot- 
land — the Methodists pumped, and stoned, and pelted with rotten 
eags — the Quakers incarcerated in filthy prisons, beaten, whipped at 
the cart's tail, banished and hungl Because they dared to speak the 
■truth, to break the unrighteous laws of their country, and chose rather 
to suifer atlliction with the people of God, " not accepting deliver- 
ance," even under the gallows. Why were Luther and Calvin per- 
secuted and excommunicated, Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer burnt ] 
Because they fearlessly proclaimed the truth, though that truth was 



21 

contrary to public opinion, and the authority of Ecclesiastical coun- 
cils and conventions. Now all this vast amount of human suffering 
might have been saved. All these Prophets and Apostles, Martyrs, 
and Reformers, might have lived and died in peace with ail men, but 
following the example of their great pattern, " they despised the 
shame, endured the cross, and are now set down on the right hand 
of the throne of God," having received the glorious welcome of" well 
done good and faithful servants, enter ye into the joy of your Lord." 

But you may say we are women-, how can our hearts endure perse- 
cution ? And why not \ Have not ivomen stood up in all the dignity 
and strength of moral courage to be the leaders of the people, and to 
bear a faithfid testimony for the truth whenever the providence of 
God has called them to do so '{ Are there no women in that noble 
army of martyrs who are now singing the song of Moses and the 
Lamb 1 Who led out the women of Israel from the house of bon- 
dage, striking the timbrel, and singing the song of deliverance on the 
banks of that sea whose waters stood up like walls of crystal to open 
a passage for their escape l It was a woman ; Miriam, the prophet- 
ess, the sister of Moses and Aaron. Who went up with Barak to 
Kauesh to fight against Jabin, King of Canaan, into whose hand 
Israel had been sold because of their iniquities ? It was a ivoman ! 
Deborah the wife of Lapidoth, the judge, as well as the prophetess 
of that backsliding people ; Judges iv, 9. Into whose hands was 
Sisera, the captain of Jabin's host delivered ? Into the hand of a 
looman. Jael the wife of Heber ! Judges vi, 21. Who dared to 
speak the truth concerning those judgments which were coming upon 
Judea, when Josiah, alarmed at finding that his people "had not kept 
the word of the Lord to do after all that was written in the book of 
the Law," sent to enquire of the Lord concerning these things 1 It 
was a woman. Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum ; 2, 
Chron. xxxiv, 22. Who was chosen to deliver the whole Jewish 
nation from that murderous decree of Persia's King, which wicked 
Haman had obtained by calumny and fraud 1 It was a woman ; 
Esther the Queen ; yes, weak and trembling ivoman was the instru- 
ment appointed by God, to reverse the bloody mandate of the eastern 
monarch, and sare the whole visible church from destruction. What 
human voice first proclaimed to Mary that she should be the mother 
of our Lord 1 It was a woman ! Elizabeth, the wife of Zacharias ; 
Luke i, 42, 43. Who united with the good old Simeon in giving 
thanks publicly in the temple, when the child, Jesus, was presented 
there by his parents, " and spake of him to all them that looked for 
redemption in Jerusalem 1" It was a ?t'omart / Anna the prophetess. 
Who first proclaimed Christ as the true Messiah in the streets of Sa- 
maria, once the capital of the ten tribes 1 It was a woman ! Who 
ministered to the Son of God whilst on earth, a despised and perse- 
cuted Reformer, in the humlile garb of a carpenter ? They were 
tvomen ! Who followed the rejected King of Israel, as his fainting 
■footsteps trod the road to Calvary ? " A great company of people 
and of women ;" and it is remarkable that to them a/Q«^he turned 



22 

and addressed the pathetic language, " Daughters of Jerusalem, 
weep not tor me, but weep for yourselves and your children." Ah ! 
who sent unto the Roman Governor when he was set down on the 
judgment sent, saying unto him, " Have thou nothing to do with that 
just man, for I have suffered many things this day in a dream be- 
cause of him ?" It was a rvoman ! the wife of Pilate. Although 
"Ae knew that for envy the Jews had delivered Christ," yet he con- 
sented to surrender the Son of God into the hands of a brutal sol- 
diery, after having himself scourged his naked body. Had the wife of 
Pilate sat upon that judgment seat, what would have been the result 
of the trial of this "just person V 

And who last hung round the cross of Jesus on the mountain 
of Golgotha] Who first visited the sepulchre early in the morn- 
ing on the first day of the week, carrying sweet spices to embalm his 
precious body, not knowing that it was incorruptible and could not 
be holden by the bands of death? These were women! To whom 
did he Jirst appear after his resurrection 1 It was to a woman ! Mary 
Magdalene ; Mark xvi, 9. Who gathered with the apostles to wait 
at Jerusalem, in prayer and supplication, for " the promise of the 
Father ;" the spiritual blessing of the Great High Priest of his 
Church, who had entered, not into the splendid temple of Solomon, 
there to offer the blood of bulls, and of goats, and the smoking censer 
upon the golden altar, but into Heaven itself, there to present his in- 
tercessions, after having "given himself for us, an offering and a sac- 
rifice to God for a sweet smelling savor?" Women were among that 
holy company ; Acts i, 14. And did women wait in vain "? Did 
those who had ministered to his necessities, followed in his train, and 
wept at his crucifixion, wait in vain ? No ! No ! Did the cloven 
tongues of fire descend upon the heads of ivomen as well as men 1 
Yes, my friends, " it sat upon each one of them ;" Acts ii, 3. Wo- 
men as well as men were to be living stones in the temple of grace, 
and therefore their heads were consecrated by the descent of the 
Holy Ghost as well as those of men. Were xvomen recognized as 
fellow laborers in the gospel field ] They were ! Paul says in his 
epistle to the Philippians, " help those women who labored with me, 
in the gospel ;" Phil, iv, 3. 

But this is not all, Roman women were burnt at the stake, their 
delicate limbs were torn joint from joint by the ferocious beasts of the 
Amphitheatre, and tossed by the wild bull in his fury, for the diversion 
of that idolatrous, warlike, and slaveholding people. Yes, women suf- 
fered under the ten persecutions of heathen Rome, with the most un- 
shrinking constancy and fortitude ; not all the entreaties of friends, 
nor the claims of new born infancy, nor the cruel threats of enemies 
could make them sprinkle one grain of incense upon the altars of Ro- 
man idols. Come now with me to the beautiful valleys of Piedmont. 
Whose blood stains the green sward, and decks the wild flowers with 
colors not their own, and smokes on the sword of persecuting France] 
It is woman'' s, as well as man's] Yes, women were accounted as sheep 
for the slaughter, and were cut down as the tender saplings of the wood. 



29 

But time would fail me, to tell of all those hundreds and thousands 
o^ women, who perished in the Low countries of Holland, when Alva's 
sword of vengeance was unsheathed against the Protestants, when 
the Catholic Inquisitions of Europe became the merciless execution- 
ers of vindictive wrath, upon those who dared to worship God, instead 
of bowing down in unholy adoration before "my Lord God the Pope^'' 
and when England, too, burnt her Ann Ascoes at the stake of martyr- 
dom. Suffice it to say, that the Church, after having been driven from 
Judea to Rome, and from Rome to Piedmont, and from Piedmont to 
England, and from England to Holland, at last stretched her faintmg 
wings over the iJark bosom of the Atlantic, and found on the shores 
of a great wilderness, a refuge from tyranny and oppression — as she 
thought, but even here, (the warm blush of shame mantles my cheek 
as I write it,) tven here, woman was beaten and banished, imprisoned, 
and hung upon the gallows, a trophy to the Cross. 

And vvhat, I would ask in conclusion, have u'ojh en done for the great 
and glorious cause of Emancipation] Who wrote that pamphlet 
which moved the heart of Wilberforce to pray over the wrongs, and his 
tongue to plead the cause of the oppressed African 1 It was a tvoman, 
Elizabeth Heyrick. Who labored assiduously to keep the sufferings 
of the slave continually before the British public "? They were xvomen. 
And how did they do it \ By their needles, paint brushes and pens, 
by speaking the truth, and petitioning Parliament for the abolition of 
slavery. And what was the effect of their labors 1 Read it in the 
Emancipation bill of Great Britain. Read it, in the present state of 
her West India Colonies, Read it, in the impulse which has been 
given to the cause of freedom, in the United States of America. 
Have English women then done so much for the negro, and shall 
American women do nothing 1 Oh no ! Already are there sixty female 
Anti-Slavery Societies in operation. These are doing just what the 
English women did, telling the story of the colored man's wrongs, 
praying for his deliverance, and presenting his kneeling image con- 
stantly before the public eye on bags and needle-books, card-racks, 
pen-wipers, pin-cushions, &c. Even the children of the north are in- 
scribing on their handy work, " May the points of our needles prick 
the slaveholder's conscience." Some of the reports of these Societies 
exhibit not only considerable talent, but a deep sense of religious 
duty, and a determination to persevere through evil as well as good 
report, until every scourge, and every shackle, is buried under the 
feet of the manumitted slave. 

The Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society of Boston was called last fall, to a 
severe trial of their faith and constancy. They were mobbed by " the 
gentlemen of property and standing," in that city at their anniversary 
meeting, and their lives were jeoparded by an infuriated crowd ; but 
their conduct on that occasion did credit to our sex, and affords a full 
assurance that they will never abandon the cause of the slave. The 
pamphlet. Right and Wrong in Boston, issued by them in which a 
particular account is given of that " mob of broad cloth in broad day," 
doBS equal credit to the heud and the heart of her who wrote it. I 



24 

wish my Southern sisters could read it ; they would then understand 
that the women of the North have engaged in this work from a sense 
of reliorious duty, and that nothing will ever induce them to take their 
.hands from it until it is fully accomplished. They feel no hostility 
to you, no bitterness or wrath ; they rather sympathize in your trials 
and difficulties ; but they well know that the first thing to be done to 
help you, is to pour in the light of truth on your minds, to urge you 
to reflect on, and pray over the subject. This is all t/iey can do for 
you, you must work out your own deliverance with fear and trembling, 
and with the direction and blessing of God, you can do it. Northern 
women may labor to produce a correct public opinion at the North, 
but if Southern women sit down in listless indifference and criminal 
idleness, public opinion cannot be rectified and purified at the South. 
It is manifest to every reflecting mind, that slavery must be abolish- 
ed ; the era in v.hich we live, and the light which is overspreaduig 
the whole world on this subject, clearly show that the time cannot be 
distant when it will be done. Now there are only two ways in which 
it can be eflfected, by moral power or physical foixe, and it is for you 
to choose which of these you prefer. Slavery always has, and always 
will produce insurrections wherever it exists, because it is a violation 
of the natural order of things, and no human power can much longer 
perpetuate it. The opposers of abolitionists fully believe this; one of 
them remarked to me not long since, there is no doubt there will be 
a most terrible overturning at the South in a ^ew years, such cruelty 
and wrong, must be visited with Divine vengeance soon. Abolition- 
ists believe, too, that this must inevitably be the case if you do not 
repent, and they are not wiUing to leave you to perish without en- 
treating you, to save yourselves from destruction ; well may they say 
with the apostle, " am I then your enemy because I tell you the truth," 
and warn you to flee from impending judgments. 

But v.hy, my dear friends, have I thus been endeavoring to lead you 
through the history of more than three thousand years, and to point 
you to that great cloud of witnesses who have gone before, " from 
works to rewards V Have I been seeking to magnify the sufferings, 
and exalt the character of woman, that she " might have praise of 
men?" No! no! my object has been to arouse you, as the wives 
and mothers, the daughters and sisters, of the South, to a sense of 
your duty as women, and as Christian women, on that great subject, 
which has already shaken our country, from the St. Lawrence and 
the lakes, to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Mississippi to the 
shores of the Atlantic ; and icill continue mightily to shake it, until the 
polluted temple of slavery fall and crumble into ruin. I would say 
unto each one of you, "what meanest thou, sleeper! arise and call 
upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us that we perish 
not." Perceive you not that dark cloud of vengeance which hangs 
over our boasting Republic ? Saw you not the lightnings of Hea- 
ven's wrath, in the flame which leaped from the Indian's torch to the 
roof of yonder dwelling, and lighted with its horrid glare the darkness 
of midnight i Heard vou not fn® thunders of Divine anger, as the dis- 



25 

tant roar of the cannon came rolling onward, from the Texian coun- 
try, where Protestant American Rebels are fighting with Mexican 
Republicans — tor what? For the re-establishment of slavery; yes! 
of American slavery in the bosom of a Catholic Republic, where that 
system of robbery, violence, and wrong, had been legally abolished 
for twelve years. Yes ! citizens of the United States, after plunder- 
ing Mexico of her land, are now engaged in deadly conflict, for the 
privilege of fastening chains, and collars, and manacles — upon whom? 
upon the subjects of some foreign prince 1 No ! upon native born 
American Republican citizens, although the fathers of these very men 
declared to the whole world, while struggling to free themselves from 
the three penny taxes of an English king, that they believed it to be 
a self-evident truth that all men were created equal, and had an unalien- 
able right to liberty. 

Well may the poet exclaim in bitter sarcasm, 

" The fustian flag that proudly waves 
In solemn inockerj' o'er a land of slaves." 

Can you not, my friends, understand the signs of the times ; do you 
not see the sword of retributive justice hanging over the South, or 
are you still slumbering at your posts ? — Are there no Shiphrahs, no 
Puahs among you, who will dare in Christian firmness and Christian 
meekness, to refuse to obey the wicked laws which require woman to 
enslave, to degrade and to brutalize wotnan ? Are there no Miriams, 
who would rejoice to lead out the captive daughters of the Southern 
States to liberty and light? Are there no Huldahs there who will 
dare to speak the truth concerning the sins of the people and those 
judgments, which it requires no prophet's eye to see, must follow if 
repentance is not speedily sought ? Is there no Esther among you 
who will plead for the poor devoted slave ? Read the history of this 
Persian queen, it is full of instruction ; she at first refused to plead 
for the Jews ; but, hear the words of Mordecai, " Think not within 
thyself, that thou shalt escape in the king's house more than all the 
Jews, for if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall 
there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another 
place : but thou and thy father's house shall he destroyed." Listen, too, 
to her magnanimous reply to this powerful appeal ; "/ icill go in unto 
the king, which is not according to law, and if I perish, I perish." 
Yes ! if there were but one Esther at the South, she might save her 
country from ruin ; but let the Christian women there arise, as the 
Christian women of Great Britain did, in the majesty of moral power, 
and that salvation is certain. Let them embody themselves in so- 
cieties, and send petitions up to their different legislatures, entreating 
their husbands, fathers, brothers and sons, to abolish the institution 
of slavery ; no longer to subject wotnan to the scourge and the chain, 
to mental darkness and moral degradation; no longer to tear husbands 
from their wives, and children from their parents; no longer to n.ake 
men, women, and children, work ivithout wages ; no longer to make 
their lives bitter in hard bondage ; no longer to reduce American citi' 



26 

zens to the abject condition o{ slaves, of "chattels personal;" no longer 
to barter the image of God in human shambles for corruptible things 
such as silver and gold. 

The women of the South can overthrow this horrible system of op- 
pression and cruelty, licentiousness and wrong. Such appeals to 
your legislatures would be irresistible, for there is something in the 
heart of man which will bend under moral suasion. There is a swift 
witness for truth in his bosom, which will respond to truth when it is 
uttered with calmness and dignity. If you could obtain but six signa- 
tures to such a petition in only one state, I would say, send up that 
petition, and be not in the least discouraged by the scofTs and jeers 
of the heartless, or the resolution of the house to lay it on the table. 
It will be a great thing if the subject can be introduced into your 
legislatures in any way, even by women, and they will be the most 
likely to introduce it there in the best possible manner, as a matter 
of morals and religion, not of expediency or politics. You may 
petition, too, the different ecclesiastical bodies of the slave states. 
Slavery must be attacked with the whole power of truth and the 
sword of the spirit. You must take it up on Christian ground, and 
fight against it with Christian weapons, whilst your feet are shod with 
the preparation of the gospel of peace. And you are noiv loudly 
called upon by the cries of the widow and the orphan, to arise and 
gird yourselves for this great moral conflict, with the Avhole armour 
of righteousness upon the right hand and on the left. 

There is every encouragement for you to labor and pray, my 
friends, because the abolition of slavery as well as its existence, has 
been the theme of prophecy. " Ethiopia (says the Psalmist) shall 
stretch forth her hands unto God." And is she not now doing so? 
Are not the Christian negroes of the south lifting their hands in prayer 
for deliverance, just as the Israelites did when their redemption was 
drawing nigh I Are they not sighing and crying by reason of the 
hard bondage 1 And think you, that He, of whom it was said, " and 
God heard their groaning, and their cry came up unto him by reason 
of the hard bondage," think you that his ear is heavy that he cannot 
now hear the cries of his suffering children ] Or that He who raised 
up a Moses, an Aaron, and a Miriam, to bring them up out of the 
land of Egypt from the house of bondage, cannot now, with a high 
hand and a stretched out arm, rid the poor negroes out of the hands 
of their masters 1 Surely you believe that his arm is 7iot shortened 
that he cannot save. And would not such a work of mercy redound 
to his glory ] But another string of the harp of prophecy vibrates to 
the song of deliverance : "But they shall sit every man under his 
vine, and under his fig-tree, and none shall make them, afraid ; for the 
mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it." The slave never can 
do this as long as he is a slave ; whilst he is a " chattel personal" he 
can own 7io property ; but the time is to come when every man is to 
sit under his own vine and his own fig-tree, and no domineering driver, 
or irresponsible master, or irascible mistress, shall make him afraid 
of the chain or the whip. Hear, too, the sweet tones of another 



27 

string : " IVIany sTiall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be in- 
creased." Slavery is an insurmountable barrier to the increase of 
knowledge in every community where it exists ; slavery, then, must be 
abolished be/ore this prediction can be fulfiled. The last chord I shall 
touch, will be this, " They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy 
mountain." 

Slavery, then, must he overthrown before the prophecies can be ac- 
complished, but how are they to be fulfiled? Will the wheels of the 
millennial car be rolled onward by miraculous power? No! God 
designs to confer this holy privilege upon man ; it is through his in- 
strumentality that the great and glorious work of reforming the world 
is to be done. And see you not how the mighty engine of moral poiver 
is dragging in its rear the Bible and peace societies, anti-slavery 
and temperance, sabbath schools, moral reform, and missions ? 
or to adopt another figure, do not these seven philanthropic associa- 
tions compose the beautiful tints in that bow of promise which spans 
the arch of our moral heaven 1 Who does not believe, that if these 
societies were broken up, their constitutions burnt, and the vast 
machinery with which they are laboring to regenerate mankind was 
stopped, that the black clouds of vengeance would soon burst over 
our world, and every city would witness the fate of the devoted cities 
of the plain? Each one of these societies is walking abroad through 
the earth scattering the seeds of truth over the wide field of our 
world, not with the hundred hands of a Briareus, but with a hundred 
thousand. 

Another encouragement for you to labor, my friends, is, that you 
will have the prayers and co-operation of English and Northern phi- 
lanthropists. You will never bend your knees in supplication at the 
throne of grace for the overthrow of slavery, without meeting there 
the spirits of other Christians, who will mingle their voices with yours, 
as the morning or evening sacrifice ascends to God. Yes, the spirit 
of prayer and of supplication has been poured out upon many, many 
hearts; there are wrestling Jacobs who will not let go of the prophetic 
promises of deliverance for the captive, and the opening of prison doors 
to them that are bound. There are Pauls who are saying, in reference 
to this subject, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" There are 
Marys sitting in the house now, who are ready to arise and go forth 
in this work as soon as the message is brought, " the master is come 
and calleth for thee." And there are Marthas, too, who have already 
gone out to meet Jesus, as he bends his footsteps to their brother's 
grave, and weeps, not over the lifeless body of Lazarus bound hand 
and foot in grave-clothes, but over the politically and intellectually 
lifeless slave, bound hand and foot in the iron chains of oppression and 
ignorance. Some may be ready to say, as Martha did, who seemed 
to expect nothing but sympathy from Jesus, " Lord, by this time he 
stinketh, for he hath been dead four days." She thought it useless 
to remove the stone and expose the loathsome body of her brother ; 
she could not believe that so great a miracle could be wrought, as to 
raise that putrefied body into life ; but " Jesus said, take i/e away the 



28 

stone ;" and when they had taken away the stone where the dead was 
laid, and uncovered the body of Lazarus, then it was that " Jesus 
lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard 
me," &c. " And when he had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice, 
Lazarus, come forth." Yes, some may be ready to say of the 
colored race, how can theu ever be raised politically and intellectu- 
ally, they have been dead four hundred years 1 But u-e have nothing 
to do with how this is to be done ; oht business is to take away the 
stone which has covered up the dead body of our brother, to expose 
the putrid carcass, to show how that body has been bound with the 
grave-clothes of heathen ignorance, and his face with the napkin of 
prejudice, and having done all it was our duty to do, to stand by 
the negro's grave, in humble faith and holy hope, waiting to hear 
the life-giving command of " Lazarus, come forth." This is just 
what Anti-Slavery Societies are doing ; they are taking away the 
stone from the mouth of the tomb of slavery, where lie.-; the putrid 
carcass of our brother. They want the pure light of heaven to shine 
into that dark and gloomy cave ; they want all men to see how that 
dead body has been bound, how that face has been wrapped in the 
napkin of prejudice ; and shall they wait beside that grave in vain 1 
Is not Jesus still the resurrection and the life? Did He come to pro- 
claim liberty to the captive, and the opening of prison doors to them 
that are bound, in vain 1 Did He promise to give beauty for ashes, 
the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit 
of heaviness unto them that mourn in Zion, and will He refuse to 
beautify the mind, anoint the head, and throw around the captive 
negro the mantle of praise for that spirit of heaviness which has so 
long bound him down to the ground l Or shall we not rather say 
with the prophet, " the zeal of the Lord of Hosts icill perform this"?" 
Yes, his promises are sure, and amen in Christ Jesus, that he will 
assemble her that haltcth, and gather her that is driven out, and her 
that is afflicted. 

But I will now say a few word? on the subject of Abolitionism. 
Doubtless you have all heard Anti-Slavery Societies denounced as 
insurrectionary and mischievous, fanatical and dangerous. It has 
been said they publish the most abominable untruths, and that they 
are endeavoring to excite rebellions at the South. Have you believed 
these reports, my friends 1 have you also been deceived by these false 
assertions 1 Listen to me, then, whilst I endeavor to wipe from the 
fair character of Abolitionism such unfounded accusations. You 
know that / am a Southerner ; you know that my dearest relatives 
are now in a slave State. Can you for a moment beheve I would 
prove so recreant to the feehngs of a daughter and a sister, as to join 
a society which was seeking to overthrow slavery by falsehood, blood- 
shed, and murder? I appeal to you who have known and loved me 
in days that are passed, can yoic beheve it ? No ! my friends. As a 
Carolinian, I was peculiarly jealous of any movements on this subject ; 
and before I would join an Anti-Slavery Society, I took the precau- 
tion of becoming acquainted with some of the leading Abolitionists, 



29 

of reading their publications and attending-iheir meetings, at whi''*u I 
neard addresses both from colored and white men ; and it was not 
until I was fully convinced that their principles were enllrdij pacific^ 
and their efforts only moral, that I gave my name as a member to the 
Female Anti-Slavery Society of Philadelphia. Since that time, I 
have regularly taken the Liberator, and read many Anti-Slavery 
pamphlets and papers and books, and can assure you I never have 
seen a sino-le insurrectionary paragraph, and never read any account 
of cruelty which I could not believe. Southerners may deny the 
truth of these accounts, but why do they not prove them to be false. 
Their violent expressions of horror at such accounts being believed, 
may deceive some, but they cannot deceive me, for T lived too long 
in the midst of slavery, not to know what slavery is. When / speak 
of this system, " I speak that I do know," and I am not at all afraid 
to assert, that Anti-Slavery publications have not overdrawn the mon- 
strous features of slavery at all. And many a Southerner knows this 
as well as I do. A lady in North Carolina remarked to a friend of 
mine, about eighteen months since, " Northerners know nothing at all 
about slavery ; they think it is perpetual bondage only ; but of the 
depth of degradation that word involves, they have no conception ; if 
they had, Iheij ivould never cease their efforts until so horrible a system 
was overthrown." She did not know how faithfully some Nortliern 
men and Northern women had studied this subject ; how diligently 
they had searched out the cause of" him who had none to help him," 
and how fearlessly they had told the story of the negro's wrongs. 
Yes, Northerners know every thing about slavery now. This monster 
of iniquity has been unveiled to the world, her frightful features un- 
masked, and soon, very soon will she be regarded with no more 
complacency by the American republic than is the idol of Juggernaut, 
rolling its bloody wheels over the crushed bodies of its prostrate 
victims. 

But you will probably ask, if Anti-Slavery societies are not insur- 
rectionary, why do Northerners tell us they are 1 Why, I would ask 
you in return, did Northern senators and Northern representatives 
give their votes, at the last sitting of congress, to the admission of 
Arkansas Territory as a state 1 Take those men, one by one, and 
ask them in their parlours, do you approve of slavery 1 ask them on 
J^orlhern ground, where they will speak the truth, and I doubt not 
every man of them will tell you, no I Why then, I ask, did ihey give 
their votes to enlarge the mouth of that grave which has already de- 
stroyed its tens of thousands % All our enemies tell us they are as 
much anti-slavery as we are. Yes, my friends, thousands who are 
helping you to bind the fetters of slavery on the negro, despise you in 
their hearts for doing it ; they rejoice that such an institution has not 
been entailed upon them. Why then, I would ask, do ihey lend you 
their help? I will tell you, "they love the praise \f men more than 
the praise of God." The Abolition cause has not yet become so 
popular as to induce them to believe, that by advocating it in con- 
gress, they shall sit still more securely in their seats there, and like 



30 

the chief rulers in the daya of our Saviour, though mamj helieved on 
him, yet they did not confess him, lest they should he put out of the 
synagogue; John xii, 42, 43. Or perhaps like Pilate, thinking they 
could prevail nothing, and fearing a tumult, they determined to release 
Barabbas and surrender the just man, the poor innocent slave to be 
stripped of his rights and scourged. In vain will such men try to 
wash their hands, and say, with the Roman governor, " I am inno- 
cent of the blood of this just person." Northern American statesmen 
are no more innocent of the crime of slavery, than Pilate was of the 
murder of Jesus, or Saul of that of Stephen. These are high charges, 
but I appeal to their hearts ; I appeal to public opinion ten years 
from now. Slavery then is a national sin. 

But you will say, a great many other Northerners tell us so, who 
can have no political motives. The interests of the North, you must 
know, my friends, are very closely combined with those of the South. 
The Northern merchants and manufacturers are making their fortunes 
out of the produce of slave labor ; the grocer is selling your rice and 
sugar ; how then can these men bear a testimony against slavery 
without condemning themselves? But there is another reason, the 
North is most dreadfully afraid of Amalgamation. She is alarmed 
at the very idea of a thing so monstrous, as she thinks. And lest 
this consequence might flow from emancipation, she is determined to 
resist all efforts at emancipation without expatriation. It is not be- 
cause she approves of slavery, or believes it to be " the corner stone 
of our republic," for she is as much anti-slavery as we are ; but 
amalgamation is too horrible to think of. Now I would ask you, is 
it right, is it generous, to refuse the colored people in this country the 
advantages of education and the privilege, or rather the right, to fol- 
low honest trades and callings merely because they are colored? 
The same prejudice exists here against our colored brethren that 
existed against the Gentiles in Judea. Great numbers cannot bear 
the idea of equality, and fearing lest, if they had the same advantages 
we enjoy, they would become as intelligent, as moral, as religious, 
and as respectable and wealthy, they are determined to keep them as 
low as they possibly can. Is this doing as they would be done by? 
Is this loving their neighbor OS /Ae?«se/i'es ? Oh! that swcA opposers 
of Abolitionisin would put their souls in the stead of the free colored 
man's and obey the apostolic injunction, to " remember them that are 
in bonds as bound with them." I will leave you to judge whether the 
fear of amalgamation ought to induce men to oppose anti-slavery 
efforts, when they believe slavery to be sinful. Prejudice against 
color, is the most powerful enemy we have to fight with at the North. 

You need not be surprised, then, at all, at what is said against 
Abolitionists by the North, for they are wielding a two-edged sword, 
which even here, cuts through the cords of caste, on the one side, 
and the bonds of interest on the other. They are only sharing the 
fate of other reformers, abused and reviled whilst they are in the mi- 
nority ; but they are neither angry nor discouraged by the invective 
which has been heaped upon them by slaveholders at the South and 



31 

their apologists at the North. They know that when George FoX 
and William Edmundson were laboring in behalf of the negroes in 
the West Indies in 1671 that the very same slanders were propogated 
against them, which are now circulated against Abolitionists. Al- 
though it was well known that Fox was the founder of a religious 
sect which repudiated all war, and all violence, yet even he was ac- 
cused of "endeavoring to excite the slaves to insurrection and of 
teaching the negroes to cut their master's throats." And these two 
men who had their feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of 
Peace, were actually compelled to draw up a formal declaration that 
they xvere not trying to raise a rebellion in Barbadoes. It is also 
worthy of remark that these Reformers did not at this time see the 
necessity of emancipation under seven years, and their principal 
efforts were exerted to persuade the planters of the necessity of in- 
structing their slaves ; but the slaveholder saw then, just what thd 
slaveholder sees now, that an enlightened population never can be a, 
slave population, and therefore they passed a law that negroes shouli 
not even attend the meetings of Friends. Abolitionists know that the 
life of Clarkson was sought by slavetraders, and that even Wilber- 
force was denounced on the floor of Parliament as a fanatic and a 
hypocrite by the present King of England, the very man who, in 1834, 
set his seal to that instrument which burst the fetters of eight hundred 
thousand slaves in his West India colonies. They know that the 
first Quaker who bore di faithful testimony against the sin of slavery 
was cut otffrom religious fellowship with that society. That Quaker 
was a woman. On her deathbed she sent for the committe who dealt 
with her — she told them, the near approach of death had not altered 
her sentiments on the subject of slavery and waving her hand towards 
a very fertile and beautiful portion of co*-;ntry which lay stretched be- 
fore her window, she said with great solemnity, " Friends, the time 
will come when there will not be friends enough in all this district to 
hold one meeting for worship, and this garden will be turned into a 
wilderness." 

The aged friend, who with tears in his eyes, related this interesting 
circumstance to me, remarked, that at that time there were seven 
meetings of friends in that part of Virginia, but that when he was 
there ten years ago, not a single meeting was held, and the country 
was literally a desolation. Soon after her decease, John Woolman 
began his labors in our society, and instead of disowning a member 
for testifying against slavery, they have for lifty-two years positively 
forbidden their members to hold slaves. 

Abolitionists understand the slaveholding spirit too well to be sur- 
prised at any thing that has yet happened at the South or the North; 
they know that the greater the sin is, which is exposed, the more vio- 
lent will be the efforts to blacken the character and impugn the mo- 
tives of those who are engaged in bringing to light the hidden things 
of darkness. They understand the work of Reform too well to be 
driven back by the furious waves of opposition, which are only foam- 
ing out their own shame. They have stood " the world's dread 



32 

laugh," when only twelve men formed the first Anti-Slavery Society 
m Boston in 1831. They have faced and refuted the calumnies ot 
their eneinied, and proved themselves to be emphatically j»eace men by 
never resisting the violence of mobs, even when driven by them from 
the temple of God, and dra<ijged by an infuriated crowd through the 
streets of the emporium of New-England, or subjected by slaveholders 
to the pain of corporal punishment. " None of these things move 
them ;" and, by the grace of God, they are determined to persevere 
in this work of taith and labor of love : they mean to pray, and 
preach, and write, and print, until slavery is completely overthrown, 
until Babylon is taken up and cast into the sea, to " be found no 
more at all." They meatj to petition Congress year after year, until 
the seat of our government is cleansed from the sinful traffic of 
"slaves and the souls of men." Although that august assembly may 
be like the unjust judge who "feared not God neither regarded man," 
yet it must yield just as he did, from the power of importunity. Like 
the unjust judge. Congress must redress the wrongs of the widow, 
lest by the continual coming up of petitions, it be wearied. This will 
be striking the dagger into the very heart of the monster, and once 
'tis done, he must soon expire. 

Abolitionists have been accused of abusing their Southern brethren. 
Did the prophet Isaiah abuse the Jews when ^e addressed to them 
the cutting reproofs contained in the first chapter of his prophecies, 
and ended by telling them, they would be ashamed of the oaks they 
had desired, and confounded for the garden they had chosen ? Did 
John the Baptist abuse the Jews when he called them "a generation 
of vipers,^'' and warned them "to bring forth fruits meet for repent- 
ance ?" Did Peter abuse the Jews when he told them they were the 
murderers of the Lord of Glory 1 Did Paul abuse the Roman Gov- 
ernor when he reasoned before him of righteousness, temperance, 
and judgment, so as to send conviction home to his guilty heart, and 
cause him to tremble in view of the crimes he was living in? Surely 
not. No man will now accuse the prophets and apostles of abuse, 
but what have Abolitionists done more than they? No doubt the 
Jews thought the prophets and apostles in their day, just as harsh 
and uncharitable as slaveholders now, think Abolitionists ; if they 
did not, why did they beat, and stone, and kill them 1 

Great fault has been found with the prints which have been em- 
ployed to expose slavery at the North, but my friends, how could this 
be done so effectually in any other way ] Until the pictures of the 
slave's sufl'erings were drawn and held up to public gaze, no North- 
erner bad any idea of the cruelty of the system, it never entered their 
minds that such abominations could exist in Christian, Republican 
America ; they never suspected that many of the gentlemen and ladies 
who came from the South to spend the summer months in travelling 
among them, were petty tyrants at home. And those who had lived 
at the South, and came to reside at the North, were too ashamed of 
slavery even to speak of it ; the language of their hearts was, " tell it 
not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon ;" they saw ho 



33 

use in uncovering the loathsome body to popular sight, and in hope- 
less despair, wept in secret places over the sins of oppression. To 
such hidden mourners the formation of Anti-Slavery Societies was 
as life from the dead, the first beams of hope which gleamed through 
the dark clouds of despondency and grief. Prints were made use 
of to effect the abolition of the Inquisition in Spain, and Clarkson 
employed them when he was laboring to break up the Slave trade, 
and English Abolitionists used them just as we are now doing. 
They are powerful appeals and have invariably done the work they 
were designed to do, and we cannot consent to abandon the use of 
these until the realities no longer exist. 

With regard to those white men, who, it was said, did try to raise 
an insurrection in Mississippi a year ago, and who were stated to be 
Abolitionists, none of them were proved to be members of Anti-Sla- 
very Societies, and it must remain a matter of great doubt whether, 
even they were guilty of the crimes alledged against them, because 
when any community is thrown into such a panic as to inflict Lynch 
law upon accused persons, they cannot be supposed to be capable of 
judging with calmness and impartiality. We know that the papers of 
which the Charleston mail was robbed, were 7iot insurrectionary, and 
that they were not sent to the colored people as was reported, We 
know that Amos Dresser was no insurrectionist though he was accused 
of being so, and on this false accusation was publicly whipped in 
Nashville in the midst of a crowd of infuriated slaveholders. Was 
that young man disgraced by this infliction of corporal punishment? 
No more than was the great apostle of the Gentiles who five times 
received forty stripes, save one. Like him, he might have said, 
" henceforth I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus," for 
it was for the truth^s sake, he suffered, as much as did the Apostle 
Paul. Are Nelson, and Garrat, and Williams, and other Abolition- 
ists who have recently been banished from Missouri, insurrectionists? 
We know they are not, whatever slaveholders may choose to call them. 
The spirit which now asperses the character of the Abolitionists, is the 
verij same which dressed up the Christians of Spain in the skins of wild 
beasts and pictures of devils when they were led to execution as here- 
tics. Before we condemn individuals, it is necessary, even in a wicked 
communitv, to accuse them of some crime ; hence, when Jezebel 
wished to compass the death of Naboth, men of Belial were suborned 
to bear /a/se witness against him, and so it was with Stephen, and so 
it ever has been, and ever will be, as long as there is any virtue to 
suffer on the rack, or the gallows. False witnesses must appear 
against Abolitionists before they can be condemned. 

I will now say a few words on George Thomson's mission to 
this country. This Philanthropist was accused of being a foreign 
emissary. Were La Fayette, and Steuben, and De Kalb, foreign 
emissaries when they came over to America to fight against the 
tories, who preferred submitting to what was termed, " the yoke of 
servitude," rather than bursting the fetters which bound them to the 
mother country ? They came with carnal loeapons to engage in bloody 



34 

conflict against American citizens, and yet, where do their names 
stand on the page of History. Among the honorable, or the low l 
- Thomson came here to war against the giant sin of slavery, not with 
the sword and the pistol, but with the smooth stones of oratory taken 
from the pure waters of the river of Truth. His splendid talents 
and commanding eloquence rendered him a powerful coadjutor in the 
Anti-Slavery cause, and in order to neutralize the effects of these 
upon his auditors, and rob the poor slave of the benefits of his labors, 
his character was defamed, his life was sought, and he at last driven 
from our Republic, as a fugitive. But was Tho7npson disgraced by all 
this mean and contemptible and wicked chicanery and malice? No 
more than was Paul, when in consequence of a vision he had seen at 
Troas, he went over to Macedonia to help the Christians there, and 
was beaten and imprisoned, because he cast out a spirit of divination 
from a young damsel which had brought much gain to her masters. 
Paul was as much a. foreign emissanj in the Roman colony of Philippi, 
as George Thompson was in America, and it was because he was a 
Jeiv, and taught customs it was not lawful for them to receive or ob- 
serve, being Romans, that the Apostle was thus treated. 

It was said, Thompson was a felon, who had fled to this country to 
escape transportation to New Holland. Look at him now pouring 
the thundering strains of his eloquence, upon crowded audiences in 
Great Britain, and see in this a triumphant vindication of his charac- 
ter. And have the slaveholder, and his obsequious apologist, gained 
any thing by all their violence and falsehood ] No ! for the stone 
which struck Goliath of Gath, had already been thrown from the 
sling. The giant of slavery who had so proudly defied the armies 
of the living God, had received his death-blow before he left our 
shores. But what is George Thompson doing there 1 Is he not now 
laboring there, as effectually to abolish American slavery as though 
he trod our own soil, and lectured to New York or Boston assem- 
blies ? What is he doing there, but constructing a stupendous dam, 
which will turn the overwhelming tide of public opinion over the 
wheels of that machinery which Abolitionists are working here. He 
is now lecturing to Britons on .American Slavei'y, to the subjects of a 
King, on the abject condition of the slaves of a Republic. He is tell- 
ing theni of that mighty confederacy of petty tyrants which extends 
over thirteen States of our Union. He is telling them of the munifi- 
cent rewards offered by slaveholders, for the heads of the most distin- 
guished advocates for freedom in this country. He is moving the 
British Churches to send out to the churches of America the most 
solemn appeals, reproving, rebuking, and exhorting them with all 
long suffering and patience to abandon the sin of slavery immediately. 
Where then I ask, will the name of George Thompson stand on the 
page of History ? Among the honorable, or the base ] 

What can I say more, my friends, to induce you to set your hands, 
and heads, and hearts, to this great work of justice and mercy. Per- 
iJiaps you have feared the consequences of immediate Emancipation, 
and been frightened by all those dreadful prophecies of rebellion, 



85 

bloodshed and murder, which have been uttered. «♦ Let no man de- 
ceive you ;" they are the predictions of that same " lying spirit" which 
spoke through the four thousand prophets of old, to Ahab king of 
Israel, urging him on to destruction. Slavery may produce these 
horrible scenes if it is continued five years longer, but Emancipation 
never tot//. 

I can prove the safety of immediate Emancipation by history. In 
St. Domingo in 1793 six hundred thousand slaves were set free in a 
white popufation of forty-two thousand. That Island " marched as 
by enchantment towards its ancient splendor, cultivation prospered, 
every day produced perceptible proofs of its progress, and the 
negroes all continued quietly to work on the different plantations, 
until in 1802, France determined to reduce these liberated slavea 
again to bondage. It was at this time that all those dreadful scenes 
of cruelty occured, which we so ofsen unjustly hear spoken of, as the 
effects of Abolition. They were occasioned not by Emancipation, 
but by the base attempt to fasten the chains of slavery on the limbs 
of liberated slaves. 

In Gaudaloupe eighty-five thousand slaves were freed in a white 
population of thirteen thousand. The same prosperous effects fol- 
lowed manumission here, that had attended it in Hayti, every thing 
was quiet until Buonaparte sent out a fleet to reduce these negroes 
airain to slavery, and in 1802 this institution was re-established in 
that Island. In 1834, when Great Britain determined to liberate the 
slaves in her West India colonies, and proposed the apprenticeship 
system ; the planters of Bermuda and Antigua, after having joined 
the other planters in their representations of the bloody consequences 
of Emancipation, in order if possible to hold back the hand which 
was offering the boon of freedom to the poor negro ; as soon as they 
found such falsehoods were utterly disregarded, and Abolition must 
take place, came forward voluntarily, and asked for the compensation 
which was due to them, saying, they preferred immediate emancipation, 
and were not afraid of any insurrection. And how is it with these 
islands now 1 They are decidedly more prosperous than any of those 
in which the apprenticeship system was adopted, and England is now 
trying to abolish that system, so fully convinced is she that immediate 
Emancipation is the safest and the best plan. 

And why not try it in the Southern States, if it never has occasioned 
rebellion ; if not a drop of blood has ever been shed in consequence 
of it, though it has been so often tried, why should we suppose it 
would produce such disastrous consequences now. " Be not de- 
ceived then, God is not mocked," by such false excuses for not doing 
justly and loving mercy. There is nothing to fear from immediate 
E.-nancipation, but every thing from the continuance of slavery. 

Sisters in Christ, I have done. As a Southerner, I have felt it was 
my duty to address you. I have endeavoured to set before you the 
exceeding sinfulness of slavery, and to point you to the example of 
those noble women who have been raised up in the church to effect 
great revolutions, smd to suffer for the truth's sake. I have appealed 



.»?^ 



36 

to your sympathies as women, to your sense of duty as Christian 
women. I have attempted to vindicate the AboUtionists, to prove the 
entire safety of immediate Emancipation, and to plead the cause of 
the poor and oppressed. I have done — I have sowed the seeds of 
truth, but I well know, that even if an ApoUos were to follow in 
my steps to water them, " God only can give the increase." To 
Him then who is able to prosper the work of his servant's hand, I 
commend this Appeal in fervent prayer, that as he " hath chosen the 
iveak things of the world, to confound the things which are mighty," 
so He may cause His blessing, to descend and carry conviction to the 
hearts of many Lydias through these speaking pages. Farewell — 
Count me not your " enemy because I have told you the truth," but 
believe me in unfeigned affection 

Your sympathizing Friend, 

ANGELINA B. GRIMKE. 



Published by the American Anti-Slavery Society, corner of Spruce 
and Nassau Streets. 



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